Veolia

Veolia Environnement is a multinational French company with activities in energy, water, waste management, and transport services. It has 105,200 employees in 42 countries generating revenues of $14.1 billion dollars in 2008. Between 2000 and 2003 the company was known as Vivendi Environnement, having been spun off from the Vivendi SA conglomerate company, most of the rest of which became Vivendi. Prior to 1998 Vivendi was known as Compagnie Générale des Eaux. Its divisions include Veolia Environmental Services and Veolia Energy.

In the United States, Veolia Energy currently maintains customer relations under four brand names:
 * Veolia Energy - is the company's primary energy and facility management services brand name in the United States.
 * Dalkia - is the inventor, and leading European provider, of energy services.
 * Trigen - in 2007, Veolia Energy North America acquired the Trigen Companies, which own and operate the largest portfolio of District Energy (heating and cooling) systems in the United States of America. Trigen operates facilities in 11 U.S. cities.
 * SourceOne - another subsidiary is SourceOne, a nationally recognized power management company providing support to businesses who view power as critical to their operations. SourceOne maintains offices in Boston and New York City.

History
On December 14, 1853, a water company named Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) was created by an Imperial decree of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to supply water to the public in Lyon, serving in this capacity for over a hundred years. In 1861, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris.

Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying its operations from water into waste management, energy, transport services, construction and property, and later television channels. It acquired the "Compagnie Générale d'Entreprises Automobiles" (CGEA), specialized in industrial vehicles, which was later divided into two branches: Connex and Onyx Environnement. CGE then acquired the "Compagnie Générale de Chauffe", and later the Montenay group. The Energy Services division these companies became part of was later renamed "Dalkia" (1998).

Vivendi and Veolia
In 1998, Compagnie Générale des Eaux changed its name to Vivendi, and sold off its property and construction divisions the following year. In July 2000, Vivendi spun off the remaining water and waste companies into Vivendi Environnement, renamed Veolia Environnement in 2003.

Existing Coal Plants
Trigen-Syracuse Energy was the owner of the Trigen Syracuse Plant in Syracuse, New York, a coal-fired power station now owned and operated by Veolia:

West Carrollton plant explosion
On May 4, 2009, a Veolia Environmental Service's plant in West Carrollton, Ohio exploded. The blast leveled two buildings on the property which were a laboratory and a building that had several 200,000 gallon chemical tanks. This particular plant handles fuel blending among other services. Two workers at the plant were injured in the blast. The explosion caused $50 million in damage to the plant itself. More than a dozen homes up to a mile radius from the blast were also damaged due to the explosion.

Related SourceWatch Articles

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 * Global warming